In 1998, Australian wine merchant John Baker was puzzled when he received a cryptic message and a list of wines he, on initial inspection, had never heard of. Once he cracked the code, he realised it was a cellar of around 40,000 bottles - including some of the most expensive wines ever produced. It was being offered for a million dollars, and had apparently been hidden away in the republic of Georgia by former head of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin. Could he secure a deal?

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Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Katy Takatsuki

Picture: John Baker in the wine cellar

Credit: John Baker

...that I can possibly imagine.” It’s time for the BBC Inspirations Awards - a celebration of incredible people and stories. A perfect antidote to a challenging year.

Find out about this year’s winners on www.bbcworldservice.com/inspirations and tune into their full stories from 21 December, 2020.

Iraqi poet Adnan Al-Sayegh was confined to a deserted stable for having banned books in his possession while serving as a conscript in the Iraqi army during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. It was in these squalid conditions that he began writing a poem that would become one of the longest in Arabic history. It's called Uruk's Anthem and is over 500 pages long and took 12 years to write - it not only brought Adnan international recognition, but also put his life in danger, forcing him to flee his homeland in 1993. Now, for the first time, substantial extracts from Uruk's Anthem have been published jointly in English and Arabic - the book is called Let Me Tell You What I Saw and was co-written and translated by Jenny Lewis.

Extracts of Uruk's Anthem came courtesy of Adnan Al-Sayegh

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Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: June Christie

Interpreter: Youssef Taha

Picture: Adnan Al-Sayegh holding the book Wait for me under the Statue of Liberty

Credit: Adnan Al-Sayegh

In 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay went missing in Texas. Several years later, he apparently resurfaced in Spain, and he was reunited with his family. But all was not as it seemed. Private investigator Charlie Parker knew he had an imposter on his hands. He spoke to Outlook's Jo Fidgen in 2018.

Rob Weston was abandoned in a cinema toilet in the UK in 1956. Decades later he was reunited with his brother Tommy Chalmers, thanks to the help of DNA detective Julia Bell. He spoke to Jo Fidgen in 2018.

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Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Harry Graham

Picture: Newspaper article about Rob Weston

Credit: Photo courtesy of Rob Weston

Growing up on a farm in Ireland as a lonely and unpopular child, Noel Fitzpatrick found solace in an invented superhero, ‘Vetman’, who rescued all the broken animals of the world. He’s now a pioneering veterinary surgeon who has become famous for fitting bionic limbs on injured pets. He tells Jo Fidgen how an operation on a tortoise almost cost him his life's passion.

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Presenter: Jo Fidgen

Producer: Sophie Eastaugh

Picture: Noel Fitzpatrick operating on Oscar the Cat to give him two Bionic back feet in 2010

Credit: Wild Productions Ltd

In 2002, Mauritanian engineer Mohamedou Salahi was detained by American intelligence services. They believed he was a senior figure in al-Qaeda and took him to Guantanamo Bay, the notorious US prison camp. Mohamedou was held there for 14 years without charge, during which time he says he was tortured. A glimmer of light came in the form of an unexpected and life-changing friendship he would make with Steve Wood, one of his American guards. A new Hollywood movie about Mohamedou's story will be released early next year called The Mauritanian. This story was first released in August 2019.

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Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Mariana Des Forges

Image: (L-R) Mohamedou Salahi and Steve Wood

Credit: Mohamedou Salahi

Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 has long been an anthem for working women around the world. She wrote it on the set of a movie - the hit 80s comedy 9 to 5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and of course Dolly Parton. It's a film about three secretaries who decide to take revenge on their misogynist boss. The film was inspired by the stories of real secretaries who became so exasperated by how they were being treated by their managers they decided to fight back. They formed an organisation called 9to5 and Karen Nussbaum was one of its founders.

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Picture: 9 to 5 film

Credit: Shutterstock

Presenter: Saskia Edwards

Producer: Fiona Woods

Clips used:

9 to 5 [Dolly Parton, RCA Nashville]

9 to 5 [IPC Films, Colin Higgins]

Barbarella [Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, Roger Vadim]

Private Secretary [Jack Chertok Television Productions]

Bad bosses contest [Phil Donahue Show, Multimedia Entertainment]

Coffee protest news clip [CBS]

In the 1970s John E. Douglas was a relatively young FBI agent who would travel around the US teaching police officers the bureau's tactics. John knew he was inexperienced compared to the seasoned detectives he was instructing. But he had an idea to accelerate his learning: go into prisons and speak to notorious serial killers. He spoke to some of the most infamous criminals, including child killer Joseph McGowan. They weren't called 'serial killers' back then, John helped come up with the term. Through the interviews John was able to understand how the minds of these criminals worked and how it could be applied to solve open cases. But the gruelling work took its toll on John. Andrea Kennedy spoke to him about how it began to erode his mental health and very nearly cost him his life. His story inspired the Netflix series Mindhunter. This episode was first released in June 2019.

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Presenter: Andrea Kennedy

Producer: Saskia Edwards

Picture: John E. Douglas

Credit: Alexander James Towle/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

Indian sailor Sudeep Choudhary was kidnapped at gunpoint by Nigerian pirates. He and his crew were taken to a swampy jungle prison in the Niger Delta where human skeletons hung in the trees. The hostages pinned their hopes on shaky ransom negotiations and the desperate efforts of their families back home. Sudeep tells Outlook's Kevin Ponniah his harrowing story and how his freedom was secured.

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Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Deiniol Buxton

Sound designer: Joel Cox

Picture: Sudeep Choudhury

Picture design by Manuella Bonomi

Image credits: Sanjeet Pattanaik, Getty Images and www.marinetraffic.com/DennisMortimer

Rufus Wainwright was once described by Elton John as 'the greatest songwriter on the planet'. He's the son of two North American folk music legends – Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle but went on to forge his own prolific career. He's got 12 albums under his belt including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, where he sang Over the Rainbow with his mother Kate on stage, a song they’ve performed since his childhood. Rufus was especially close to his mum, early on in his songwriting career he looked to her for advice and approval, and her support helped him through a destructive crystal meth addiction. They sang together often, right up until she died from cancer in 2010. This episode was originally released on 8th July 2020.

Rufus' latest album is called Unfollow the Rules.

Presenter: Emily Webb

Producer: Maryam Maruf

Picture: Rufus Wainwright with his mother Kate McGarrigle

Credit: Getty Image